African Films on Screen in 2018

Ahead of the international release of South African thriller ‘Five Fingers for Marseilles’ in April 2018, the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham has an exciting new schedule of African films for the first few months of 2018.

Makala (16-23 February)

A French documentary film directed by Emmanuel Gras, Makala screened in the International Critics’ Week section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prize. It follows the tribulations of a 28-year old farmer named Kasongo who earns a living through the back-breaking work of making charcoal. He dreams of being able to build a house for his wife, Lydie. A strikingly cinematic depiction of life in rural Congo.

Makala will also be shown on 31 January at Curzon Oxford and 1 February at Curzon Bloomsbury, with both screenings followed by a Q&A with the director.

Woubi Cheri (10 March)

In Ivory Coast, a statuesque young man named Barbara organises the Transvestite Association’s annual year end party. This insightful, funny, often ribald documentary introduces us to the Abdijan, Ivory Coast’s vibrant gay and transgender community.

Kimpa Vita: The Mother of the African Revolution (16 March)

At a time of strife and civil war in the Kingdom of Kongo, a young woman leads a mass movement calling for unity and an end to Portuguese dominance. A Ne Kunda Nlaba’s biopic documentary explores her legacy, revealing how powerful African kingdoms were wickedly invaded by the West and suffered slavery and exploitation.In the early 1700s, a fearless young woman decides to fight for her country and while she tragically meets her demise, she will always be remembered as Kimpa Vita: The Mother of the African Revolution.

The Wound (28 April – 19 May)

In South Africa, Xolani, a disgruntled a factory worker, returns home every year to initiate a new group of Xhosa teenagers into manhood through ritual circumcision. Tradition and modernity clash when he encounters Kwanda, a city boy with nothing but contempt for the old ways, who quickly guesses at Xolani’s darkest secret.